CT Completes Pilot Program with New L-Acoustics Kiva II

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CT purchases 84 second-generation enclosures after putting 16 of North America’s first arrivals to the test

March 2017 – Headquartered in the Los Angeles area with inventoried offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Las Vegas and Atlanta — in addition to operations in the UK, Spain, Holland, Germany, Dubai, Qatar, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore — Creative Technology (CT) Group easily ranks as one of the world’s largest audio, video and staging providers as well as one of L-Acoustics’ biggest customers with over 700 of the manufacturer’s enclosures in its inventory.

Serving a wide range of corporate, exhibition, sports and entertainment industry clients for over three decades, CT originally partnered with L-Acoustics back in 2004 with its first rental network order of a dozen dV-DOSC and quickly grew from there. One of the company’s most versatile and frequently deployed systems in recent years has been the compact and lightweight Kiva enclosure, which CT currently has 72 of in its inventory. So, last year, when L-Acoustics announced the upcoming arrival of the product’s update, known as Kiva II, CT immediately agreed to become one of a select group of companies that would take part in L-Acoustics’ pilot program for the new model.

L-Acoustics’ compact Kiva II modular line source adds 6dB of max SPL over the original Kiva, as well as a maximised amplifier density with 16 ohm impedance and rugged new enclosure material offering better weather resistance. Weighing only 31 pounds (14 kg), the product’s elegant lines and flush-fitted rigging allow it to melt into any architecture, making it a natural fit for installations in performing arts centres and special events demanding minimum visual obtrusion, and particularly in L-ISA™ multi-channel configuration installations.

Despite its ultra-compact format, the Kiva II features L-Acoustics’ Wavefront Sculpture Technology™ (WST), giving it a long throw capability and delivering even SPL from the front row to the back of the audience. Its coplanar transducer arrangement and new K-shaped coplanar transducer configuration generates a symmetric horizontal coverage of 100 degrees without secondary lobes over the entire frequency range.

According to Danny Guerrero of CT’s audio engineering department, the company initially took delivery of 16 Kiva II, but quickly purchased a grand total of 84 new enclosures based on its overwhelming satisfaction with the product.

“We’ve certainly been happy with our first-gen Kivas, but we were tremendously impressed with the superb sound that we got out of the new Kiva IIs right from the start,” he says. “We immediately knew that this product would be an answer to jobs that need great sound but have serious weight and size restrictions; Kiva II blends nicely into the scenic elements but still delivers high sound quality when clients want to focus more on video. Low ceilings make Kiva II an obvious choice in our scope of work, especially at trade shows and other big corporate events, and they’ve been going out on jobs constantly. The word back from my techs is that they sound great and are very easy to fly and strike, and everyone I have spoken to has been very happy with Kiva II.”